Just off a year in which the city recorded 343 murders, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh on Friday fired Police Commissioner Kevin Davis.

Pugh is naming Deputy Commissioner Darryl DeSousa, a 30-year veteran of the department, as commissioner-designate. The permanent appointment is pending approval by the City Council and Board of Estimates.

Davis, the former Anne Arundel County police chief, was promoted from within Baltimore police leadership by then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in the summer of 2015, three months after police were criticized for the response to the 2015 riots.

“As I have made clear, reducing violence and restoring the confidence of our citizens in their police officers is my highest priority,” Pugh said in a statement. “The fact is, we are not achieving the pace of progress that our residents have every right to expect in the weeks since we ended what was nearly a record year for homicides in the City of Baltimore. As such, I have concluded that a change in leadership is needed at police headquarters."

Besides the continued spike in homicides, Davis' 2 1/2-year tenure saw the city entering into a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice over a pattern of civil rights violations. A number of officers in the Gun Trace Task Force were ensnared in a federal racketeering case involving overtime fraud and shakedowns of residents. Dozens of cases were thrown out by prosecutors after body camera video depicted questionable evidence handling by officers. Detective Sean Suiter was shot and killed with his own service weapon, a case that remains unsolved two months later.

While there were reports that two top police officials had lost their access to police headquarters, a police spokesman said there were no additional personnel changes Friday.

City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young" said he stands behind Pugh's decision.

"Darryl is a student of community policing and understands that the way forward will require a concerted reconciliation process to help repair trust between the department and the public at large," Young said in a statement. "The road ahead will be difficult, but members of the City Council stand ready to partner with Mayor Pugh, Commissioner Designate DeSousa and the men and women of the police department as we continue the process of reforming policing practices in our city.”

DeSousa said his top priority is violence reduction.

"The second priority is violence reduction and the third priority is violent reduction, at an accelerated pace," he said.

Minutes after his appointment, DeSousa issued his first order, sending officers to strategic locations as new waves of officers clock in for the day,

"There's going to be officers on foot addressing problematic businesses, and quite frankly, we know where those businesses are," DeSousa said. "They're going to have specific missions each and every day when they go out on the streets...and that mission is going be centered around violence reduction."

He said similar initiatives were undertaken twice last year.

He said he intends to decentralize certain units and disperse officers from headquarters to the precincts, and reduce the sizable amount the department spends on overtime. He also wanted to let violent repeat offenders know they are on notice.

"I have a really strong message for the trigger-pullers, which is that we're coming after them," he said.

City Councilman Brandon M. Scott said he lobbied for DeSousa to take the top job when Rawlings-Blake dismissed Anthony Batts in 2015, and believes DeSousa will have the support of his colleagues.

"This commissioner, I think, is the best of all worlds when you put all his experiences, all his understanding and knowledge of Baltimore but also all his understanding and knowledge of policing from what he's been through," Scott told C4 shortly after the announcement. "And I think that he will try to get us right back on the right track of being different, but being aggressive of how we can reduce crime in Baltimore."

Hear Scott's full interview with C4:

DeSousa is well-liked by the rank-and-file, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3 President Lt. Gene Ryan said.

"For too long, our members have been working under extremely difficult circumstances, including mandatory 15 hour shifts, and their morale has suffered greatly," Ryan said in a statement. "We are confident that this encouraging modification at the very top of our command structure will bring about the positive changes that will allow us to achieve our mission of violence reduction for the citizens of Baltimore."

State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby worked closely with Davis.

“I thank Kevin Davis for his service and wish him the best in his next endeavor," Mosby said in a statement. "I look forward to working with Designate Commissioner DeSousa and continuing the partnership with the Baltimore Police Department that is necessary to tackle violent crime in our city."

DeSousa, 53, is a New York native who joined the department in 1988, and for the last year has led the patrol division. The mayor believes he has not just the experience for the job, but the respect of his fellow officers. Frederick Bealefeld III, who ran the department from 2007 to his 2012 retirement, was the last commissioner to rise through the ranks in a similar manner.

"He knows what has worked in the past and I think that gives him a pretty good road map for what can work in the future. And so focusing on people who drive violence in the city is really not rocket science and it's nothing new," said Bealefeld, now the chief of security for Under Armour. "When we had success in the past, it really was because people leveraged information and used that in a comp way to get results and I'm confident that Commissioner DeSousa understands that because he was a part of that."

Phil Yacuboski talks to Fred Bealefeld about the issues that contributed to Davis' ouster and the department's future under DeSousa:

He said that nobody talks about the role of police in reducing crime when crime is down.

"When crime levels are down, people tend to say, the talking heads will say, 'Well police don't really affect crime that much.' When crime levels are very high then people are all looking to the police department for an answer," Bealefeld said.

DeSousa came to Baltimore to attend Morgan State University, but left the university to join the police--he finished his degree in 1997. He still lives in Baltimore and is the father of two grown children.

“Baltimore has long been my home and I’ve spent my career on its streets and in its neighborhoods to address problems and bring about solutions that are meaningful for the people we serve," he said in a statement. "I am committed to this important work more than ever and look forward to validating the trust of Mayor Pugh, my fellow officers and most importantly, the citizens of Baltimore each and every day.”

In 2015, the Board of Estimates agreed to a five-year contract with Davis that included $150,000 severance pay.